Mikey and Mario

I can not believe Mikey is seven.  WTH? When did that happen? It blows my mind that Hunter is approaching the age Mikey was when Mike and I met.  Where does the time go? 

That being said, Mikey chose to have a Super Mario birthday party this year.  We gave him a choice between having his party at a park or at peter piper pizza with the condition that he would have less budget left over for presents. He chose Peter Piper.  I was pretty overwhelmed with Hunter's Party, My SIL's baby shower and a huge family reunion we were in charge of, that I was really hoping Mikey's party wouldn't seem last minute. 

I got these invitations on ebay. The seller sent me the proof and it said "MICKEY is turning 7"...as in the mouse.  Thankfully it didn't take very long to get that fixed!

The spread. I got a bunch of ideas from this blog. 

I found lanyards that were custom made to look like pit-passes for each kid.  They were really cute, I wish I had a close-up.  You can see them on the right in the picture below.

The Hats were Walmart purchases for $1.50 a piece. I bought white felt and used acrylic paint I already had to paint the letters.  

The mustaches I ordered in bulk from a party supplier online. I also ordered gum coins (scattered on the table) from them.  

The Mushrooms were a last minute find that I was so excited for! I can't take any credit for the idea, I was so happy that I found them before the party!  Here is a tutorial on how to make them. The top of the mushroom opens up and the base is a pouch.  I had 10 tokens in each one for the kids.  That way they could keep track of their own tokens and tickets! Again, it was super inexpensive because felt is like $.37 at Walmart!

The silverware was leftover from Hunter's party.  I just removed the shark napkin ring and replaced it with pictures of mario characters. (princess peach, yoshi, the star, etc). I seem to always forget pictures of the tiny details...

The Birthday Boy

Mike drew the ghost face with a sharpie and we found out that sharpie's are not very permanent on latex. Whoops-y. We tried to make them look like Boo! (the ghosts that chase you)   

These balloons were supposed to look like the 'chain-chomps'.  I even had them attached to a paper chain! I just couldn't resist!

We love our Jake!

Preston and Tanya representing! 

The Thomas siblings (minus Paul)

These boys loved playing "b-ball" but what was even more hilarious than watching them was watching Nick and Julia "help" them make baskets.  (If you know Nick or Julia, you know that it turned into a competition between the two of them, and the toddlers were forgotten about)

Ski Ball Love

You know you miss it...

I had to get a picture of all of the men gathered around the shooting game.  Glued.to.the.screen.

CAKE!  (Don't those candles look like Yo-Gabba-Gabba?)

Waiting to eat cake! 

Apparently some people can't wait any longer and just dive in with the serving utensil...

Emery and Pauline.  Emery would absolutely not wear a mustache unless another girl wore one. So my mother in law finally convinced her to put one on for a picture. She is such a girly-girl!

Presents!

Mikey's uncle got him this semi-auto nerf gun.  You should have seen my house after the party.  There were three grown men and a 7 year old having a full fledged shoot-out with various nerf guns and the bow and arrow Nick and Jess got Mikey.  It felt like it was raining Nerf bullets for awhile.  I am still finding them to this day.

Hunter trying to be like his older brother.  He takes Mikey's nerf gun and will say "Freeze".

Jake and Ju playing with Boo.

Jax showing off his ticket purchases. Better watch out for Jacob! (Hardy-har-har.)

So all-in-all, it was a great party! I was so glad I could make Mikey feel special for his birthday!  Happy birthday my big seven year old!

Hunter's 2nd Birthday! (Finally!)

I have been OBSESSED with this party planning blog for quite awhile.  This woman is my idol. On that note, I was so sad to find out that her shop was temporarily out of commission when Hunter's birthday came around.  She threw the most amazing party for her six-year-old son.  I used that party as inspiration for Hunter's 2nd Birthday! Mine barely holds a candle to hers, but here goes: 

The invitation was so fun for me!  I made it using powerpoint! (I really need to invest in photoshop...)

I adore Polkadots & Pirates signature banners, so here is my attempt at one.  I have to say, I have definitely got my money's worth for my Cricut. It came in handy for this bad boy.

The 'candy bar'.  Seriously, who got candy from the Sweet Factory in Arrowhead Mall? Don't those bags look straight from there!?  A little walk down memory lane, if you will.  The candy bar was complete with Swedish fish, Gummy Sharks and Gum balls. 

I couldn't leave out the life savers!

Squirt shark party favors! 

Again shout-out to power point!

MMMmmm...Costco cupcakes.  

I fell.in.love with those mini pinwheels at Michaels.  Thankfully they put out their July 4th decor in May. :)  I can sadly admit that I wasted like five solid minutes mesmerized with them.

  

I wish I would have had a close up of the silverware!  They had cute little napkin rings on them that said "Enjoy a bite!"

  I was on the lookout for napkins that weren't solid red or solid blue and I finally found some! Party City you're my hero. (Bueller?)

   

The first game we played was the 'Cake Hunt' where there were various clues throughout the house leading to the cake. The first clue read:

 The Cake is missing! It’s hidden from view.

If you want your dessert, then here’s what you do:

Follow the clues; they’ll lead you to more;

To find your next clue, look by the front door.

...and so on. The kids loved it and I loved how much running up and down the stairs wore them out. Win-win if you ask me.  

They found it!   

Don't those candles ROCK!?  I was sad he only needed two because I wanted to use them all!

Two of the cutest boys ever! (Other than mine of course :))

Tanya and Preston

Cake! Cake! Cake! Costco came through for me again on this one!

 It was so funny to see Hunter try and blow out the candles.  He was blowing so hard and throwing his huge head forward at the same time, I was worried he was going to catch his hair on fire or face plant in the cake!

I tapped into my joy school days for this fun little fishing game.  I attached a paper clip to each fish' (fishes? fish's? anyone?) mouth with a raffle ticket on the backside.  Then, Mike made fishing poles out of dowels, string and magnets. I drew a ticket from the baggie and the winner got a super-cool shark tooth  necklace! 

I didn't specify exactly HOW you had to fish, so some kids got pretty inventive...

Nice action shot Wardy!

I found the PERFECT shark swim outfit for his party at Dillards!  The best part was that it was 50% off! Holla! I can't believe I neglected to get a picture with his shoes on because they made the outfit completely. Here is a picture of them though, so you can get the idea:

Isn't that shark towel the cutest!?  My friend Tara found it for him and it couldn't have been more perfect!

The birthday boy, post part, enjoying a blue gum-ball in his birthday suit.  Thanks for crossing your legs. We all appreciate it.

I had so much fun putting together his party and I can't wait to tell you all about Mikey's Super Mario Party! That's coming up next, I promise.  :)

reDLoPstr

Mike came up with a fun tradition for our family night.  Once a month, we write an activity or a place to eat on a piece of paper and we let Hunter draw one out of a hat.  Here were the entries for this month:

Guess which one won.

I love that boy.

Oh and by the way....

Arriving in late December/early January 

A day in the life of Dee-Dee....

Hunter loves all things Nemo.  He asks me to put on "no-no" all.day.long.  I couldn't resist taking these pictures of him lounging on the couch, eating goldfish, while watching Finding Nemo.  Wait. Isn't kind of morbid?

I love it when he says "Ah who wha he oh ho ho ho".  It sounds more like "ah oh oh oh oh" but it cracks me up!

Hunterisms:

"Fash-yite" aka:Flashlight.  OBSESSED.

"Am-Mo" aka:Vacuum. (why it's an am-mo is still a mystery to me.  I have tried to ask "animal" and he says no. But every single time he sees one he yells "Am-mo!" and they totally freak him out still. Like jump-on-the-couch-to-get-away-from-it freak him out.

"Weesy" aka: Fishy. Ours is still alive from Maia's party and every time Hunter sees him it is as if it's the first time he has ever seen a fish. "WEESY! HI WEESY! MOMMY! WEESY!"

He recently colored his whole leg with permanent marker, then about a week later he colored it orange.  When were on a long car ride, so I didn't even care.  When he was done he said "Daddy, Ine Hansin" (Handsome).

He loves playing with his toy cars and whenever a car goes a long way or rolls just right, according to him, he yells "NICE!".  He also likes to say "AWww DUDE!".  

Shout out to Uncle Jordan! :) 

**Upon further review, I discovered that he is eating cherios, not goldfish. Phew.